The European Union seeks a coordinated response from the Twenty-seven to the open crisis in Niger since the coup that overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26, which has already led to the suspension of part of European aid to the impoverished African country. “We should decide on a coordinated and coherent EU strategy to support Niger, as well as other countries in the region, taking into account the current circumstances”, point out the High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, and the Spanish Minister of Affairs Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, in a letter sent to the heads of EU diplomacy. This coordinated response should include “development aid, security cooperation and financial support,” the text adds.
“After the coup, some of you decided to cancel any type of economic, development or financial aid, while others have made announcements regarding some financial flows, but not others. Some have not yet announced any decision ”, Borrell summarizes the current situation in his letter, to which EL PAÍS has had access.
Aware that any statement can be interpreted —and manipulated— as interference or provocation by coup authorities who have not hesitated to launch false accusations against countries like France, the European Union is being very cautious with regard to Niger. Brussels prefers that the Economic Community of West African States (Cedeao) lead the international response to the coup that has destabilized a country, yet another, key to European interests in the Sahel.
This does not mean, however, that the Twenty-seven are sitting idle. Coordination since the July 26 coup has been constant. And this coordination is intensified in view of a key moment: the next major European diplomatic event, the informal summit of foreign ministers, on August 31 in Toledo.
Niger will take over the afternoon session of the Toledo meeting initially scheduled to discuss the entire Sahel region. The main idea is that the Twenty-seven coordinate above all when deciding what aid to withdraw, and how to do it, beyond other possible sanctions.
This is a key issue in a country like Niger, one of the poorest in the world: of its 25 million inhabitants, 42% live in extreme poverty and, according to EU estimates, more than 4.3 million people depend on humanitarian aid, including 376,000 internally displaced persons and 255,000 refugees from Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mali.
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
subscribe
Similarly, the head of European diplomacy and Albares —as head of the country that holds the current presidency of the EU this semester— ask to “define a common strategy for any possible support” that ECOWAS may request.
Since the beginning of the crisis, the EU has underlined its decision to “support ECOWAS decisions, including the adoption of sanctions”, as Borrell said in a statement on July 29, in which he strongly condemned the military coup and warned that the EU “does not recognize nor will it recognize the authorities that result from the putsch”.
This was reiterated this Thursday in Brussels by the spokesman for the Commission for Foreign Policy, Peter Stano, who recalled that the Twenty-seven were awaiting what was decided at the extraordinary meeting of the African organization in Abuja, Nigeria. “We have said from the beginning that we firmly support the decisions and actions of ECOWAS, and we will do that,” said the spokesman, who did not want to reveal whether specific sanctions are already being discussed among the member states, something that, he recalled, the Commission never comments publicly.
Complicated legal issues
The dizzying pace of events in Niger in recent days means that the decision —always reversible— not to call an extraordinary meeting and wait for the August 31 meeting to discuss the crisis may seem surprising. But community sources recall that decisions such as issuing sanctions against a country or against members of a government or military junta, as well as an eventual cut in aid, are technically and legally complicated issues that cannot be resolved in a few days.
Nor, they recall, is it easy to decide on or support an eventual military response —like the one with which Cedeao had threatened at the time— in a few days. For this reason, they point out, the two long weeks until the meeting in Toledo (bearing in mind that next week there is a bank holiday in Brussels and in a large part of Europe still on vacation) would probably be necessary in any case, unless the situation is precipitated and requires a more urgent response.
For the moment, the EU has suspended its budgetary aid, almost 300 million euros of the 503 million package approved in a program for Niger until 2024, as well as all security cooperation. But it has not cut —nor does it plan to, at least for the moment— humanitarian aid, the amount of which is much less: 25 million euros this year, after another item of 49.7 million in 2022. The funds, recalls the EU, They are mainly intended to help meet the needs of the most vulnerable population in terms of food, shelter, health, access to drinking water or education for children caught up in human crises, among others. According to the letter, the Commission “will review other forms of cooperation” still in force with Niger, “depending on a more detailed analysis” of the situation.
Follow all the international information on Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
#urges #coordinated #response #cooperation #security #coup #Niger